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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24958501">Memories of You</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/chibimono/pseuds/chibimono'>chibimono</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Booster Gold (Comics)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ambiguous/Open Ending, Amnesia, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Mutual Pining, Past Character Death, Ted is not dead</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2011-06-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2011-06-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 10:03:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,748</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24958501</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/chibimono/pseuds/chibimono</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The world thought him dead, but Ted's amnesia won't let him remember living. Booster wants to help him remember.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Michael Carter/Ted Kord</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Memories of You</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This was written long ago, as an ending to a very ambitious multi-part fic that I never got around to write. Still, I think this stands okay on it's own.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ted hears the tap on his window and thinks it could just be a night sound, like a branch tapping the glass or a bird settling on the ledge. But he remembers he’s in an apartment in Gotham, not back in his little home living his normal life. He remembers how he’s actually Ted now, not the unknown guy who woke up alone in a hospital with no memories. Even now he still doesn’t have his memories, but at least he knows who he is supposed to be. And being who Ted is, hearing tapping on his window at night probably has to do with some superhero.<br/>
<br/>
Maybe it’s another welcome back--he’s had tons of those--or maybe a villain of some sort knows he’s returned. It would have to be someone who flies at least, seeing as how the apartment being lent to him by Bruce Wayne is a penthouse on the twenty ninth floor. He climbs out of bed to look, drawing back the curtains. He looks out and up, but doesn’t see a thing other than the skyline and city lights sparkling. He waits just a moment before turning away, then thinks better and opens his window. As he raises the sash, he sees movement below--gold reflecting the glimmering city night. Leaning down to poke his head through the window, Ted hears the pained breath before he can see who makes it.<br/>
<br/>
Floating in the air, just about level with the floor below Ted, is Booster Gold. Something tells him that Booster still looks different, wrong--maybe it’s the cut of his hair or the sharp look of misery on his face. Ted feels a pain in his chest seeing the hero, remembering the first and last time he saw him in the Vanishing Point. Booster’s pain and delirium tugged at Ted’s heartstrings, and Ted worried that a week of healing wasn’t enough. But then, Skeets and Jaime reassured him that time travel allowed for amazing things.<br/>
<br/>
Booster doesn’t say anything but he flies up, a little closer. He’s looking at Ted like he’s not sure he can believe his eyes.<br/>
<br/>
“Booster?” Ted asks. He knows he’s right, but then again, there are so many heroes nowadays and maybe he remembered the wrong one? Maybe the visions he had been seeing were of someone else and he just never knew and everyone automatically assumed? But Booster is moving closer again, hovering just out of reach.<br/>
<br/>
“God, Ted... is it really...?” A wistful, hopeful smile tugs just at the edges of the pain written across Booster’s face, and just the glimpse is beautiful.<br/>
<br/>
Ted shrugs, reaching a hand up to scratch at his bed tousled hair. “Well, they say I am. I guess I am. But I can’t even say for sure.”<br/>
<br/>
Booster is inching closer, moving right to the window ledge to hold on, to look up at Ted. “A lot of heroes are saying it really is you... You’ll have a lot of angry metas after you if you... aren’t you.”<br/>
<br/>
Ted chuckles at that. It would be the best prank in the world to some how infiltrate the Justice League and have them so sure he was someone he wasn’t. But he knows he is Ted, because he has seen the inescapable evidence that he is Ted--the scars, the technical knowledge, the sense of humor. And when Booster’s eyes light up at his laugh, he wants even more to be Ted.<br/>
<br/>
“So... You really don’t... you know, remember? Anything?” Booster asks, his gloved fingertips touching the window ledge, one finger just barely brushing Ted’s.<br/>
<br/>
Ted feels self conscious now, of how close Booster is and the answer to his question. I remember you. My first and only memory of my life before is you. He doesn’t want Booster outside, a window and wall between them. The air is cool and his bedroom is warm and it’s so strange to him to even be thinking like this. He has no clue to where things will go with the hero in his apartment, but the sudden urge to keep him, make him stay is there.<br/>
<br/>
“Can we... Do you want to come inside? To talk?” Ted asks.<br/>
<br/>
Booster floats up a little, like a suddenly eager puppy. “Yeah. I’d like that,” he smiles wistfully.<br/>
<br/>
Ted backs away, thinking that maybe it would be easiest to let Booster in through the roof access, but Booster moves easily, gliding in through the open window just big enough for him to fit. He floats up to straighten and lands silently on the plush carpet. It dawns on Ted that he should turn on a light so they can see each other, but decides against it unless he can find a robe to cover his bed attire of a tee-shirt and boxers. So Ted just stands there and hopes that Booster doesn’t have some sort of night vision in his goggles.<br/>
<br/>
“They said...” Booster starts.<br/>
<br/>
“I don’t... remember anything,” Ted sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “So many people have told me things, and I don’t know if any of it is true. I don’t know... anything... about before I woke up in the hospital.”<br/>
<br/>
Booster listens, standing silently in the dark. Ted can barely see his face by the light of the city outside, and it makes Ted wonder if he wants to see it. He doesn’t want to see those lost, searching blue eyes, but he wants to see Booster’s face light up again. There is familiarity in the upturned corners of his mouth and the crinkles at the edge of his eyes.<br/>
<br/>
Ted frowns. “This has gotta be weird, right? I was your best friend, and I’ve been dead for a few years now. Only... I haven’t been. And... I barely know you. I’m... I don’t know. Is it okay for me to feel sorry in an event like this?”<br/>
<br/>
With the faint city light, Ted can see Booster shrug. “Why should you be sorry? You didn’t know anything about this.”<br/>
<br/>
But Ted remembers being at the Vantage Point with Jamie, Skeets, and Rip. He remembers the blue lightening that heralded Booster’s return to this dimension. His frantic pain and crippling confusion. “Please... Just let me go home... I can’t do this anymore, Ted...”<br/>
<br/>
“But I know now,” Ted says quietly. “Well, I want to know now...”<br/>
<br/>
Booster takes a hesitant step forward. “We can always... do what we used to do. And... talk about...”<br/>
<br/>
“The way...”--<em>we were</em>--“... I was?” Ted isn’t sure what he really wants to ask.<br/>
<br/>
Booster huffs a nervous sigh. “You still like cheesesteaks, right? We can go out to eat sometime and talk. Maybe hit up a pizza place? Order out for... for... Chinese...” He sounds wounded at the last suggestion.<br/>
<br/>
“Yeah...?” Ted asks, wondering how hopeful he sounds.<br/>
<br/>
“Anytime you want to-” the hero stops and puts his hand to his ear, like he’s listening to something. In the still darkness of the apartment, Ted can just barely hear the tinkling of a tinny transmitting through what was probably Booster’s earpiece.<br/>
<br/>
“Okay, Skeets.” Booster says softly, as if trying to hide his disappointment. Ted can still hear it. “I’ll be there in a bit. Just gotta... gotta say bye to Ted...”<br/>
<br/>
“Don’t say goodbye,” Ted sighs. “Isn’t that what they tell you?”<br/>
<br/>
Booster hums a little laugh and moves back towards the window. “I was gonna tell you that I’d see you later. Goodbye...? I couldn’t do that again.”<br/>
<br/>
Ted wants to tell him he’s glad for that, but instead opts for, “You sure you can’t stay for a nightcap? Whatever a nightcap would be, considering I have no alcohol here right now. I really got to fix that.”<br/>
<br/>
There is a snort, and then Booster is full-on laughing. The city lights below light up Booster’s face enough to show the genuine smile there. “That’s so...” his big smile fades into a tender grin. “That’s so you, Ted. Welcome back, buddy.”<br/>
<br/>
“Yeah, thanks,” Ted smiles. He reaches out to shake Booster’s hand, and feels awkward in doing it, then feels even more so for hesitating. He catches the gleam off of Booster’s teeth as he bites his lower lip for just a second, and then Booster is moving in. He bypasses Ted’s hand to put his own around Ted, drawing Ted into a tight hug. Instantly, this feels so much more familiar, and Ted almost can’t breathe for the heaviness in his chest.<br/>
<br/>
“I’m so sorry, Ted,” Booster whispers, tucking his face against Ted’s neck. “I’m sorry you had to go alone... I’m sorry... Don’t leave me again... I can’t... I can’t do it again...” His breath is warm and something hot is running along the edge of his cool goggles and dripping to his shoulder.<br/>
<br/>
Ted feels himself choking up and can’t say a word. He just nods and holds the hero just as tight.<br/>
<br/>
With Booster so close, Ted can hear the voice of a man through his earpiece and the sound of it has Booster slowly pulling away. “I hear you, Rip. I’m on my way,” he says as he touches at the communications device in his ear. “Look, Ted...”<br/>
<br/>
“Go. You got work to do,” Ted shrugs.<br/>
<br/>
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Booster smiles softly. “I’m a time traveler, you know. I’ve got all the time in the world.”<br/>
<br/>
“Except when it’s running out,” Ted says, gesturing to his earpiece.<br/>
<br/>
Booster sighs. “Yeah... I’ll see you later, okay?”<br/>
<br/>
Ted smiles and nods. “Sure thing, buddy.” Saying it just feels... right.<br/>
<br/>
Booster looks like he’s going to tear up again, but he takes a shuddering breath to settle himself. He lets himself back out through the window, turning back just a moment to wave, before he’s flying off into the night sky--a glittery gold speck growing smaller in the distance till he’s completely gone.<br/>
<br/>
Ted slumps onto his bed and lets out the breath he’s been holding since Booster slid through the window. He’s tired now, exhausted mentally and physically. He feels like a weight has been lifted from his shoulders, only to settle in his chest. And yet, there is a giddy excitement inside him. And a happiness.<br/>
<br/>
He’ll see Booster again. And he’ll finally begin to learn who he really is: Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle. And maybe... see if their friendship lives up to the legendary status the hero community seems to put on it.</p>
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